Apollo GraphQL Unveils First Comprehensive API Orchestration Research Study

New ESG Research Confirms API Orchestration Becomes Critical for Microservices Scale and AI-Ready Infrastructure

SAN FRANCISCO, June 24, 2025 — Apollo GraphQL, the graph-based API orchestration leader, today released findings of the first comprehensive API orchestration research report, conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). The report, titled “API Orchestration:

Where Developer Agility Meets Business Impact,” reveals how organizations are managing modern API ecosystems, the challenges teams face as they scale microservices and distributed systems, and demonstrates the measurable advantages achieved through effective API orchestration as organizations prepare for demanding new AI and agentic workloads. 

API Orchestration Emerges as a Critical Strategy as API Usage Accelerates

While APIs have become essential infrastructure, managing them at scale has emerged as a critical business challenge. The research reveals that 40% of organizations struggle with API security challenges, 37% with API sprawl, and 36% experience duplication and errors

due to lack of centralized visibility. However, organizations implementing graph-based API orchestration using GraphQL are achieving measurably superior results, creating sustainable competitive advantages in development speed, system reliability, and operational efficiency.

"The research validates what we observe across industries: API orchestration has evolved from a technical consideration to a business imperative," said Matt DeBergalis, CTO and co-founder of Apollo GraphQL. "Organizations that implement graph-based orchestration don't just solve complexity – they unlock new levels of operational agility that directly impact their ability to compete and innovate."

GraphQL Adoption is Rising and Delivering Measurable Business Impact 

GraphQL is demonstrating strong market momentum and quantifiable results for adopters. 70% of organizations are now using GraphQL, with nearly 90% of current GraphQL users reporting it met or exceeded their expectations. The research also shows organizations using GraphQL-based API orchestration achieved 2-3x faster deployment times than their peers.

"Application modernization efforts have dramatically increased both the number and criticality of APIs,” says Torsten Volk, Principal Analyst for Application Modernization at the Enterprise Strategy Group. “Our research reveals that GraphQL meets or exceeds enterprise expectations. Organizations using GraphQL report dramatic gains in deployment autonomy, fewer blockers during business-hour releases, and a smoother path for large-scale code changes. This indicates that GraphQL adoption provides quantifiable ROI through faster, more flexible, and more reliable deployments, making graph-based API orchestration essential for achieving cloud-native scalability and AI-ready infrastructure.”

Apollo Customers Demonstrate Clear ROI Advantages

The research highlights significant performance gaps between organizations with and without effective API orchestration. Apollo users are 4.4x as likely as peers to detect and deploy changes across all applications in under a week, while 28% can typically accomplish this in less than one day – something no organization from the general market achieved. Additionally, organizations using Apollo achieved 83% improvement in mean time to recovery and 82% improvement in developer productivity and experience.

"This API orchestration research provides quantitative evidence that graph-based API orchestration creates measurable business value," added DeBergalis. "In an era where digital experience is a key competitive differentiator, organizations need to move quickly while maintaining reliability. The data shows that Apollo's graph-based approach to API orchestration enables exactly that – creating the foundation organizations need for both current microservices complexity and emerging AI workloads."

Access the Full Research Findings

The “API Orchestration: Where Developer Agility Meets Business Impact” report is now available. To learn more:

• Download the full research report here

• Join the Apollo GraphQL Community to discuss the findings with peers

• Explore how Apollo GraphOS can help your organization implement effective API orchestration

About Apollo GraphQL

Apollo GraphQL helps developers build better software faster with a declarative, graph-based approach to API orchestration. With over 1 billion downloads of its open-source software, Apollo has become the standard for working with GraphQL and powers the most innovative brands today. The Apollo GraphOS® platform provides the infrastructure to unify APIs into a composable graph, enabling teams to query data from anywhere and ship new experiences with speed and confidence. Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Insight Partners, Matrix Partners, and Trinity Ventures, Apollo is headquartered in San Francisco. Learn more at: https://www.apollographql.com.

About Enterprise Strategy Group

Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) is an integrated technology analysis, research, and strategy firm providing market intelligence, actionable insight, and go-to-market content services to the global technology community. Learn more at: https://www.esg-global.com.